Just Like Candy

Jack and Meg White resist the spoils of success

The only downside to discovering a band so cool that you simply have to tell the world about it is that eventually the world does find out, and then things are never quite the same. The White Stripes' regular fanbase in Los Angeles knew that a new element had infiltrated the ranks about a year ago, when the band played the first of two shows at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. In a rare moment, the Detroit duo's normally reticent singer/guitarist Jack White began relating a story about his collection of antique furniture springs when he was interrupted by an unruly audience member.

"Shut up and play!" yelled the fellow, who was obviously not familiar with White's style.

"The second night was really great," Jack says now, "but the first night was horrible -- really bad. But what do you do with that? We've learned to deal with that now, because it's happened a lot in Europe and Australia and places like that, where we've just had to ignore the crowd. And it's a shame, really. I feel like that's the only way we can get through that kind of crowd is just ignore them and play the show, but then we're not friends anymore. Meg and I aren't friends with the audience at that point."

Patrick Pantano

White Stripes

Details

Wednesday, July 10

Pageant

Watching the White Stripes do their thing onstage, clad in their trademark red-and-white outfits, with Jack's anxious delivery and wild guitar playing and ponytailed Meg White, Jack's sister (or ex-wife, depending on whom you believe), smiling and pounding barefoot behind a peppermint-colored drum kit, it's not hard to believe that they sincerely want to be friends with their fans -- the nice ones, anyway.

"The only thing I hate," Jack says, "is when we get onstage and you can tell that this is the hip show to go to this week and everyone in the crowd is just too cool for school and all that. I hate that feeling, and Meg does, too."

Back in the summer of 2000, the hipness factor was far from an issue. Jack and Meg embarked on one of their first national tours with a pair of seven-inch singles on Italy Records, two more singles and two full-length CDs on California-based independent label Sympathy for the Record Industry and some excellent word of mouth extolling their live show. But despite advance buzz, their shows were attended by sparse crowds made up mainly of enthusiastic fans and curiosity-seekers.

When Jack and Meg decided to form their duo in 1998, the pieces seemed to fall together quickly. Both self-taught players, the Whites had already begun writing songs with a "childlike" quality when, as legend has it, Meg eyed a bag of peppermint candies hanging in a drugstore. The swirling imagery gave the band both a name and a visual direction. Jack contacted Sympathy for the Record Industry at the suggestion of friends in the Detroit Cobras, and, with the urging of '68 Comeback's Jeff Evans, Sympathy founder Long Gone John released the self-titled White Stripes debut in 1999. White Stripes contains seventeen tracks, including covers of Bob Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee" and Robert Johnson's "Stop Breaking Down"; it merges elements of country, Delta blues and garage rock with a fresh, stripped-down musical approach that garnered raves in various punk-rock fanzines. A follow-up, De Stijl, was recorded soon after; it features some of the band's catchiest songs, such as the infectious "You're Pretty Good Looking" and the Ray Davies-like "Apple Blossom," as well as bluesy numbers such as "Little Bird" and "Hello Operator," which sparked comparisons to early Led Zeppelin.

But as varied as the White Stripes' range of influences appeared to be on the two Sympathy releases, their subsequent support tour in the summer of 2000 revealed that they still had quite a few tricks up their sleeve. The band unleashed a diverse selection of covers, from a raucous interpretation of Iggy Pop's "I'm Bored" to a touching transgender rendition of Dolly Parton's "Jolene." The latter has become a standout during all the Stripes' performances and yielded a much-sought-after Sympathy single.

"When we do a song, it's because it has a special meaning to us or is something that really triggered something in my life," Jack explains, "like 'For the Love of Ivy,' by the Gun Club, or 'Jolene,' by Dolly Parton, or 'Baby Blue,' by Gene Vincent or something. All of these songs have something to do with me learning to play music or triggered something about loving music itself, or it triggered some emotion that really meant something to me or Meg."

By the end of 2000, the White Stripes were gathering steam. Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly both put Jack and Meg at the forefront of an emerging Detroit scene. Last year brought White Blood Cells -- the band's third full-length on Sympathy -- along with a Detroit compilation, Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit, which was put together by Jack and released on Sympathy. The compilation features Detroit bands such as the Dirtbombs, the Von Bondies and the Hentchmen, with whom Jack briefly played guitar. Buoyed by successful tours through the States, Europe and Japan, White Blood Cells raked in a flurry of rave reviews from the music press.